Alexi Paxinos Continues to Improve Australian Tourism Following the COVID-19 Pandemic

Posted by Grace Payne on Fri, May 27, 2022 @ 03:32 PM
Grace Payne

Alexi Paxinos is a hardworking and dedicated tourism marketer. Her competitive and ambitious attitude has catapulted her career forward as she works on building her confidence, brand, and advocacy. This dedication to her work has caused her to be promoted many times over during her first five years at the South Australian Tourism Commission (SATC). Her work at the SATC has been particularly impactful as she created a tourism campaign that aimed to support the South Australian tourism sector which had been impacted by the decrease in visitation due to the COVID-19 pandemic and South Australian bushfires that occurred one year prior.

The tourism campaign, which rolled out in less than 90 days from inception, saw nearly 45,500 people make bookings with more than 220 South Australian tour and experience providers, providing an immediate cash injection to these businesses during the traditionally quieter winter months. The end result of this project saw a $12 million increase in economic impact for the state of South Australia and a difference in the lives of many local small tourism business owners.Her work on this project helped her earn her the Gold Stevie Award for Female Employee of the Year. Since then, several iterations of Alexi’s campaigns have been launched by the SATC, and continue to help the South Australian tourism industry recover from the challenges of COVID-19. Focused on the implementation of the SATC’s Wellness Tourism Sector Plan across the state, Alexi is working with various stakeholders to enable South Australia to be positioned and recognized as a leading global wellness destination. So far, she has worked with a number of operators to create new and enhance existing tourism offerings in this sector. She's also working to enact organizational change by influencing decision-makers to encourage the switch to electronic, paperless, COVID-friendly, and eco-friendly business cards and creating better efficiencies across work processes by utilizing software and other technologies.

In addition to her work at the SATC, Alexi became Deputy Chair of Spence Club Inc. in May 2021. Through this, Alexi and her team have led the delivery of a record number of events and achieved the highest event attendance since the Club’s inception in 2015, contributed to the Club’s abolishment of the membership age limit, facilitated closer collaboration with charity partners, and provided increased benefits and scholarship opportunities to professional women in South Australia. 

In the tourism space, Alexi took on the role of Chair of the Young Australian Tourism Export Council of South Australia in June 2021, where she helped build a committee of five, compared to other Australian states with only one committee member. Through this, Alexi and the team have continued to support young tourism professionals through the impact of COVID by continuing to provide professional development opportunities and ongoing events. 

In March 2021, Alexi joined the She Creates committee, a female-led initiative of the Adelaide Advertising and Design Club aimed at developing, promoting, and inspiring women in creative communications in Adelaide. Four months in, Alexi sourced sponsorship that impacted the bottom line of She Creates, creating the ability to deliver longer, higher-quality, and more frequent development opportunities for women in the industry. Alexi is also in the early stages of launching an international education agency to encourage overseas students to study in Australia. Impacted by the COVID pandemic and Australian border closures, Alexi and the team have been using the time to re-evaluate the business goals and identify ways to increase accessibility to Australian education for more people, including those from lower-income family backgrounds.

Alexi Paxinos won the Gold for Female Employee of the Year - Government or Non-Profit in the 2021 Stevie Awards for Women in Business.

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Topics: stevie awards for women in business